Military Update
Commission turns in proposals for reform

By Tom Philpott

Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.

Military pay, promotion and retirement systems are Cold War relics that don't fit "contemporary realities," said a panel of prominent Americans that, for two years, has studied national security challenges and now has recommended reforms.

The final report of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century was released in mid-March with 50 major recommendations for improving homeland defense, strengthening the U.S. technological edge, reshaping forces and missions for the post-Cold War era, and filling ranks with longer-serving, higher-quality personnel.

Hindering the last goal, the report said, are an "up-or-out" promotion system and a 20-year retirement plan that encourage members to stay only a short time or retire while in their professional prime. An inflexible compensation system and anemic veteran education benefits further aggravate personnel retention.

Unless the services are allowed more authority to manage careers, test new compensation incentives and expand awards for service, the commission warned, "the United States will be unable to recruit and retain the technical and educated professional it needs to meet 21st century military challenges."

Two of 14 commissioners are retired four-stars — Army Gen. John. Galvin, former supreme allied commander in Europe, and Adm. Harry Train, former commander in chief of the Atlantic Command. Ex-lawmakers are represented by Newt Gingrich, Gary Hart, Warren Rudman and Lee Hamilton. Other members gained prominence as defense officials or in industry, journalism or academe.

The commission suggested four sets of changes so the military stops squandering its investments in professionals:

• Reinvigorate the concept of "citizen soldiers" by relying more heavily on reservists for homeland defense. National security threats, particularly from terrorism, should become a primary security mission of the National Guard.

• Direct recruiting effort more toward college campuses with offers of grants and scholarships, more rapid promotions, more flexible career paths, and a wide variety of incentives and enlistment options. An improved GI Bill, including the ability to transfer benefits to family members, would be key.

• Adopt a more flexible promotion system and find other ways to reward performance including more flexible assignments, incentive-based retirement options, offers of advanced education and leave of absences.

• Provide more retirement options than the "all-or-nothing" 20-year system. Under the current system, "junior personnel have to commit themselves to a long-duration career" or they get no benefit, the commission said. But once they reach 20 years, the system "induces them" to leave the military in their early 40s and the military loses "enormous investments in training, education and experience" when "many mid-grade officers and mid-grade and senior NCOs are poised to make their most valuable contributions."

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